Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to improve waiting times for patients seeking consultation with their GP.

We have committed to expanding the workforce and supporting general practice to deliver an extra 50 million appointments a year within the next five years and to help expand general practice capacity. In addition, we have made available an extra £270 million funding from November 2020 until September 2021 to ensure general practitioners and their teams are able to continue to support all patients.

In March, there was 1.24 million appointments per working day, a 5% increase compared to 1.19 million in February 2021. This includes 15.8 million face to face appointments, more than half all appointments.